Beginner's Guide for Merchants
The Purpose of This Guide #Giving direction to the beginner. #Boost status in an efficient way. Grinding skills is an exhausting process. You will spend hundreds of hours grinding your skills. Just to reach ranking 3 (r3) of a certain trading skill you will spend 3 - 4 hours, and to get r4 you will need an additional 4-5 hours. The higher the rank the more difficult it is to level it up and you will spend lots more time. Game Overview In this game you will be doing various activities. You can do trading, fishing, producing goods, pirating, bounty hunting, treasure hunting, and many more activities. To support your activity you need a set of apropriate skills. Each skill must be levelled up. The higher your skill rank the more benefit you get. You start by following the school courses to get basic knowledge about the game. There are 3 categories of courses you can follow: merchant, adventurer, and maritime. Each category has 3 levels of courses: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each level of each course is conducted at a school in a different city (old system) or at Sagres - between Lisbon & Faro (new system). After you graduate from school you can start your journey and be a captain of your own ship. You can start your journey any time without finishing your school, but it is recomended to finish your school to obtain maximum benefits. You'll need them. This game is not about making money. This game is about creating a character with a unique skill set and to become an expert on that skill set. Trader Overview The activity of the trader can be categorized into two activities: trading and production. You are buying goods from one city and selling them to other cities around the world. You are also producing goods. There are skills specific to trader activities and different skills specific to other activities (maritime and adventure). As a trader your goal is to become an expert in one or more trading skills. This article will guide you on how to rank up (level) the trade skills fast. Character Improvement There are 3 main areas related to your character's improvement: #Trading Skills #Trade Fame #Trade Level You may need to improve some useful Battle and Adventure skills as complementary, like Lookout, Fishing and Procurement, but usually they don't need special attention to improve. Buying. Buying goods will level up your Trading skills. For example, when you are buying Beer your Alcohol trading skill will improve. Selling Goods. Selling ordinary goods will level up only your Trade Level. Selling Local Goods. Selling local goods will boost both your Trade Fame and Trade Level. The way you sell local goods will boost either Trading Fame or Trade Level. If you are selling multiple local goods each at 50 (minimum quantity) at once, then you will get a lot of Trading Experience and boost your Trade Level. If you are selling local goods and keep the Fame below 300 each time, you will obtain maximum Fame. This way you can control which one you want to improve: Trade Fame or Trade Level. Profit. Profit impact to Trade Fame and Trade Level. The higher your profit the faster you level up. Distance. Distance has an impact on profit. For example, you will get a lot of more profit by selling India's goods in London rather then Amsterdam's goods. Trading Skill Grinding You need to know how to grind your trading skills efficiently. Herewith are the guidelines: #Grind the Favored Skill only.* #Buy no more than 60 goods each time. #Invest and arrange your route to buy goods from an Allied port as much as possible. #Some equipment items add to your skill rank. Try to get them. (You don't need them at low ranks, but you will at high ranks) #Expert skills add to your skill (+1). Try to get them when you reach the requirement to apply for the job. *Don't totally ignore Production skills during this process. For example, while purchasing local goods in the south Mediterranean to sell in the Baltic you could also be buying wool to make flannel - a specialty good of Edinburgh - which you could ultimately sell far from there. About skill: #'Rank.' There are ranks for each skill, and to rank up you need to earn proficiency related to that skill. #'Proficiency. '''The proficiency required to rank up is different from rank to rank. To rank up from r1 to r2 you need 200 Proficiency. To rank up from R2 to R3 you need 800 Proficiency. The proficiency required to rank up increases exponentially. #'Favored Skill'. Some skills become a favored when you are applying job. The proficiency necessary to rank up a Favored skill is half of normal. For example, normal proficiency to rank up from R1 to R2 is 200, but you only need 100 if the skill is a Favored skill. About Trading Skills: #'Trading Skills'. There are 20 Trading Skills. #'Trading Proficiency'. Proficiency of Trading Skills is earned by buying related goods. For each 3 goods you will earn 2 Proficiency. For example: If you buy 3 Beer, you will earn 2 Alcohol trading proficiency. #'Maximum Trading proficiency'. There is a limitation to how much proficiency you can earn for each transaction. You can earn maximum 40 Proficiency for each transaction. That is, to get maximum benefit you should not buy more than 60 goods each time. If you are able to buy 100 goods, then you split them into 2 transaction, 60 and 40. This way you'll earn 40 + 26 = 66 proficiency. If you buy them all at once you'll only get 40 proficiency. Some factors affect the quantity of goods that can be bought: #'Rank Factor'. The quantity of goods that can be bought depends on Trading Skill rank. The higher your rank the greater the quantity that can be bought. Some equipment items can increase your Trading Skill rank. Expert skill also add Trading Skill rank(+1). #'Influence Factor.' As influence increases trade volumes will rise. Your influence will increase when you are investing. Since you are only able to invest in an ''allied ''port this means you will be able to buy more goods at allied ports. Trade Fame Grinding *You need Trade Fame to unlock regions. For example to be able to trade in India you need at least 16000 fame. *You get Trade Fame when you are selling Local Products and by Investing in ports. *Trade fame is a function of profit. This means the higher your profit the more Trade Fame you will get. *The maximum Trade Fame you can earn per transaction is 300. For example, if you are selling 35* Nutmeg at Amsterdam at once when prices are high (more than 120%) you will earn 300* fame. If you are selling 100 Nutmeg under the same circumstances, you also earn 300 fame. To get maximum fame you need to split the transaction. So, rather than selling 100 Nutmeg at once, you are selling 35, 35, 30, and you earn 300 + 300 + 270*(~) fame. (* ''this is approximate; the actual qty is a combination of distance and Trade Level and difficult to calculate. The best method is trial and error and keep the fame you earn slighly below 300). Trade Level Grinding *You need a certain Trade Level to use a better ship or better equipment, or to do certain quests. *Trade level will increase when you earn a certain amount of experience. *You get experience selling goods. *If you sell ordinary goods: EXP = func(PROFIT) *If you sell Local Products: EXP = func(PROFIT) + localProductBonus(QTY, DISTANCE) *If you sell 2 or more types of Local Product, and a minimum of 50 of each type: EXP = func(PROFIT) + localProductBonus(QTY, DISTANCE) + comboBonusLocalProduct1(PROFIT, QTY, DISTANCE) +...+ comboBonusLocalProductN(PROFIT, QTY, DISTANCE) *When acquiring Local Products to sell at distant ports for big profit, focus on products for which you have the related Trading Skills so that you level those at the same time as your level your Merchant level. Category:Guides